McLaren praises Proteas’ bowlers

McLaren says the best part has been their achievments without the firepower of Dale Steyn

Share this article:

Ryan McLaren feels the bowlers have had to be proactive in their bid to take wickets in the slower-paced conditions.

Ryan McLaren has praised the collective effort from the Castle Lager Proteas’ ODI bowlers in the current series against Pakistan. The Proteas have been able to restrict Pakistan to low totals in both matches and seem to have adapted well to the tricky sub-continent conditions. What has been even more impressive is that they have achieved this without the firepower of Dale Steyn.

McLaren says the bowlers have had to be proactive in their bid to take wickets in the slower-paced conditions, with variation and field placing taking precedence from the usual tactics used back in South African conditions.

The 30 year-old is the Proteas’ leading wicket-taker of the year with 34 scalps at an average of 23.11 and is third behind Pakistan’s Saeed Ajmal (43) and India’s Ravindra Jadeja (46) in the world. The all-rounder made a return to the ODI set-up against England last year following a two-year absence, and has been a reliable and consistent workhorse with both bat and ball since becoming a regular in the side.

“On a personal note it’s always nice to contribute with bat and ball as a No.7,” McLaren said. “I feel I need to contribute with the bat as much as possible. As far as the bowling is concerned, collectively again we performed really well. We bowled well in partnerships as a unit and took wickets at crucial stages; we are pretty happy with the bowling performances.

“In sport when things are going well you take a bit of confidence from your performances,” he added. “It bodes well and it’s always something that you want to build up in the future. It’s important to understand and learn when and why things are going well so that when you land in tougher situations you can draw from the good experiences. I’m not close to being a finished article, there is still a lot of work for me personally which I can build on.”